This invention relates generally to social networking systems and in particular to obtaining structured objects and actions on a social networking system.
Social networking systems, or social utilities that track and enable connections between users (including people, businesses, and other entities), have become prevalent in recent years. These social networking systems allow users to more efficiently communicate information. For example, a social networking system user may post contact information, background information, job information, hobbies, and/or other user-specific data to the social networking system. Other users may then review the posted data by browsing user profiles or searching for profiles including specific data. Social networking systems also allow users to associate themselves with other users, creating a web of connections among the users of the social networking system. The social networking system may use these connections to provide users with more relevant information.
While social networking systems capture and store information describing actions taken by their users, certain types of interactions are unable to be adequately captured by conventional social networking systems. For example, real-world social interactions, such as driving across the country, visiting landmarks, or listening to a soundtrack while travelling, are unable to be adequately captured by conventional social networking systems. While users may provide information describing these real-world interactions, this information is generally provided as unstructured data, which may be provided in different formats by different users. For example, different users may use different words to describe an interaction, making it difficult to determine if different users are referring to the same action. While user information may be processed, processing unstructured data is challenging and may lead to significant errors.